Myria says "Be careful!"
"I'm always careful! Relax, this will not take long."
Before Myria can respond I run out of the room and jump off the stairs. Then I spread my wings and start gliding towards the city wall to the south. I decide to enter the wall through the south gate, so that is my destination.
The driders chase after me but fall way behind by the time I land at the south gate. The door into the wall's interior is open when I find it, but I close and bar it after me. It won't stop the driders but it will slow them down, giving me time to search in peace.
According to Core's map the bow should be about halfway to the east gate. However, on my way there I happen to glance through an open door and find a full armory. Since my backpack is empty, I don't see any reason to just leave the weapons sitting here.
So I duck through the door and start grabbing weapons and shoving them into my backpack. The swords, spears, shields, and bows all get shoved into the bag. Then I stop, there is armor but it won't really fit anyone I know so I plan to leave it.
That is until I spot suits of light leather armor made for a female, that might just fit the bunny girls. So I grab the five sets that are here and then leave the room and continue towards the east. Everything I grabbed had the glow of magic on it, but nothing all that strong.
The bow I am looking for should have a strong aura at least, or so I hope. Still I check every room that I pass, half hoping for another armory to loot. It would be nice if I could gather enough gear to equip Myria's hundred bunny girls.
Maybe after I find what I am looking for I should keep searching for more armories. Even the swords and other weapons are of a lighter make than what humans normally use. The elves were probably of similar build to the bunny girls, making their equipment perfect for the girls.
The next room I find is larger and there is equipment scattered around it. What worries me is the hole in the floor that seems to go straight down. The spiders probably used it to attack those hiding within the wall at the end of the siege.
What worries me is whether the hole leads back into the city or to somewhere far worse. Keeping one eye on the hole I start moving around the room picking up everything and bagging it. In a corner of the room I find the bow and quiver I am looking for, they have strong auras.
So does the leather armor they are laying beside and since it is made for a female I grab it as well. I will sort through everything once I am back at the column, it isn't safe here. I quickly go back to looting the rest of the room so that I can move on.
Then I freeze as I hear a quiet sound come from within the hole. Carefully taking a peek I see a bunch of spiders slowly climbing towards me. These are not driders, but real spiders, and they look a lot meaner than the driders.
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Then it strikes me that they are all neatly lined up, so I decide to try out Holy Shock. When I cast it the lightning rips through the spiders, the hole is too small for them to dodge. Their blackened corpses fall out of sight and I wait to see if more are going to come up.
12 Spider Warriors defeated! 12,000 Exp gained!
Congratulations! You have gained a level!
Level 12: HP +200, DP +100, Stat points +10!
'Wow! Those things are good Exp!'
Unfortunately, having failed once the spiders do not try again, so no free exp. The fact that they care about their losses means I may have been right about the matriarch having limited resources. If that proves to be true then I should be able to weaken her slowly over time.
The trick to that is going to be preventing her from getting any new resources. The problem there is that I have no control over what happens outside the barrier. For all I know she is smart enough to have kept breeding populations in the underground world.
These are all worries for much later on, for now I go back to looting the room. Once the room is looted I return to the hallway where I am expecting to see driders. To my surprise the hallway is completely empty, the driders should have caught up by now.
Bones has been defeated!
'What?! Summon Bones!'
Summon unavailable! Time remaining 11 hours 59 minutes!
'So if Bones gets defeated I can't summon him for twelve hours? I hope that is the only penalty!'
Unable to do anything about Bones right now I follow the hallway east. The silence from the driders has me a little worried, but I still go looking for another armory. I do find another armory, and as I loot it I wonder what the matriarch is up to this time.
When I reach the east gate I get my answer, there is nothing but a solid wall of driders waiting for me. The odd thing is that even when I come within sight the driders don't move. They just stand there staring at me as still as statues, waiting for an order I guess.
Turning and looking back down the hallway I see spiders coming towards me. I am now trapped between the two forces, but I am not really worried. While I have yet to see the spiders fight, they do not worry me too much.
Especially in a long straight hallway when I have seen that they are weak to lightning. While I could break out through the driders easily enough, instead I wait for the spiders to reach me. When the first spider is close enough to attack me I cast Holy Shock down the hallway.
As the spiders are screaming and dying I turn and cut my way through the driders. Once I have cut my way clear of the gate house I use Holy Light to turn the driders to ash. Then instead of taking flight back to the column I cross the yard and enter the door opposite.
43 Zombies defeated! 860 Exp gained!
32 Skeletons defeated! 800 Exp gained!
76 Driders defeated! 760 Exp gained!
19 Spider Warriors defeated! 19000 Exp gained!
The north gate has been destroyed, but most of the wall and hopefully the armories are intact. Now that I have made up my mind to take gear for the bunnies I want to complete the job. The stuff the bunnies don't need I figure I can give to Pol as trade goods.
After all, there are other tribes that are more dexterity based like the bunnies. Pol will surely find a use for anything I give him, he hasn't let me down yet. Even if no one wants the items, Pol will find some other use for them, so I may as well collect everything I can.
Just like the last wall, inside this wall I find two armories for me to loot. They are not completely full but there is enough left to be worth the effort. When I come to the end of the wall, where the explosion stopped, I find driders waiting for me.